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Today, cameras have become very advanced. It has simplified the process of photography down to a simple click. With the rise of digital SLR cameras microchips started taking care of your shutter speed, aperture, white balance and even exposure compensation. Inbuilt light metering helps users to simply click while the chip inside does all the hard work. The ‘Auto’ mode has well and truly made cameras popular and easy to use. Below are some tips to get the maximum out of the ‘Auto’ mode.

Be Steady:

Get the best shot by simply keeping still while clicking. A tripod is highly recommended when you shoot in Auto mode. With a tripod you can take shots of some low light areas with a slower shutter speed and get some really stunning images. Make the clicking process as shake-free as possible by setting the up the self-timer or by using a remote controlled trigger.

Posture:

If you are shooting without a tripod consider adapting a correct posture for your camera. Keep your feet apart and stable. Bend from the back for a lower centre of gravity ensuring the least amount of shake. Get your body as close to the view finder as possible. This would give you the best possible view of the frame that you are shooting while reducing the shakes.

Half Clicks:

The half click sets the focus and activates the light meter. The light meter records the light in the focus area, setting the appropriate aperture and shutter speeds. This is a great mechanism which lets you capture pictures of fast moving subjects with eloquent ease.

Using zoom:

To use or not to use zoom is always a question that confronts us. Use the zoomfeature with care. It can help you capture some intricate details, butoverdoing it can limit the creativity of your photo collection.

Framing:

While the chips in your camera can give you optimum settings, it cannot frame the image for you. That’s where the real creativity in photography lies. Compose for your frames with a keen eye and childish curiosity to get the best results always.

Sighting rainbows is always thrilling. This natural phenomenon is simply magical and can completely transform the horizon. Rainbows make everything look like fairyland and surreal. Capturing these wonderful sights should definitely be on every photographer’s list. A rainbow is an optical phenomenon that occurs due to the refraction of light through water vapour. If you are extremely lucky, you can sometimes catch multiple rainbows too! In multiple rainbows, the secondary arc is seen outside the primary rainbow in a fainter inverted arrangement of colours. The natural conditions have a large influence on the characteristic of the rainbow and its appearance. Here are some handy tips on capturing a shot of rainbows:

1. Composition:

The composition of your photo is extremely crucial. The colours of the rainbow may not always be bright. Try to frame the rainbow against a clear background without too many elements and the foreground should ideally be a contrast to the sky. Try keeping a good balance between the elements in the foreground, and background.

2. Polarising Filter:

Unnecessary light can reduce the rainbow’s visibility in the taken picture. Using a polarising filter will cut out excess light and the colours of the rainbow would come out brightly. Polarising filters increase the vibrancy of colours by reducing the sunlight that passes through the camera lens.

3. Lens:

Keep a wide angle and telephoto lens handy. The wide-angle lens will help you capture the entire width of the rainbow. You can capture the entire primary arc and if you are lucky, the secondary rainbow arcs too. The telephoto lens comes in handy when you aim for the ‘End-Of-The-Rainbow’ shots. Rainbow photography trips would be sorely incomplete without an image of the point where the rainbow meets the ground.

4. Metering:

Consciously meter the light away from the dark clouds behind the rainbow. This will reduce the vibrancy of the rainbow.

Chasing rainbows is an exciting adventure! Rainbows often last for a few minutes, not giving you enough time to set up your equipment. It is advisable to also use a good tripod to capture rainbows for stable and sharp shots. We hope you capture some stunning rainbows with the help of these tips and who knows, maybe the pot of gold too.

Experimenting with various lenses will surely introduce you to different effects and techniques. One such amazing technique is the Bokeh Effect. The word ‘Bokeh’ has Japanese roots and means ‘blurred’. This effect has a lot of visual stimulation and is driven by an aesthetically created image. The blur in the image is extremely crucial in making it a beautiful Bokeh Effect. The Bokeh Effect was big trend of the 90s and has stuck on since then. Many innovative ways have been discovered to create an artificial Bokeh Effect with lighting and low-depth of field. There are three nifty points for you to remember when you experiment with the Bokeh Effect

Focal Length:

Use a fixed focal length lens while taking a Bokeh picture. Ideally you could use 50mm f-1.8 or a 35mm f-1.4 lens for such kind of effects.

Aperture:

The aperture determines the amount of light that enters the camera sensor. The extent to which the aperture is open is indicated by F-stops. Lower the F-stop value, the wider is the aperture. For the Bokeh effect, use a very low F-stop value. This allows maximum light to enter the camera.

Depth of Field:

Always use a low depth of field. This gives you the blurred lights in the background. It’s essential that you place your subject close to the lens for the best results.

The perfect Bokeh image has some commonly accepted characteristics. The blurry spots of lights seen in the background ideally should register as individual images on the sensor. The elements in the out-of-focus parts of the image need to be more of less spherical with varying intensity of light. A lot of Bokeh photos come down to experimentation with various light settings and styles. It is recommended that you use a fixed focal length lens, which will give you the perfect shallow depth of field you are looking for. At times using telescopic lenses can also do the trick, but ensure that the background lights appear fuzzy and unclear. Not to forget, the proximity to the subject also plays a role in forming the Bokeh effect. Try various combinations and experiment to get the perfect Bokeh picture!